NYC officials rail against what they say are ICE detainment traps at immigration court
New York City officials are asking for more people to bear witness to what they claim are detainment traps set up inside federal immigration court.
As CBS News New York's Allen Devlin reports, one man was taken shortly after walking out of the courtroom on Tuesday.
"This is an emergency for our democracy"
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams got emotional as he stood next to a mother in tears who was holding hands with her young daughter moments after city officials say their husband and father, Jefferson Velazquez, was detained following immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza.
"Everyone should be terrified about what's happening in that courtroom, and everyone should be doing everything they can to stop it," Williams said. "This little girl probably doesn't even know what happened to her father yet. We have someone who's waiting for her partner, not even knowing they are detained. These are human beings."
- Read more: NYC Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry on cooperating with ICE: "It's important to have a seat at the table"
A pastor who was with the family in court described the moment he had to explain to Velazquez's wife and daughter that the asylum seeker was in custody.
"She was in shock, and Soye, who is 6 years old, asked, 'Where is my father? Where is my daddy?' And the mother had to respond, I had to respond. It was very ... it was a fiction movie," Father Fabian Aries said.
City Comptroller Brad Lander and Rep. Dan Goldman joined Williams on Tuesday morning to, as they say, "bear witness" to the proceedings inside immigration courts, as city officials report some immigrants who show up for court face immediate detainment regardless of what is decided in the courtroom.
"This is an emergency for our democracy," Lander said. "As soon as they leave the courtroom, they are abducted by masked federal agents, many of them not wearing uniforms or badges, with, lets be clear, no legal basis for their abduction."
Tens of thousands detained by ICE, data shows
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have stepped up detainments and deportations nationwide as a part of new policy set forth by the Trump administration.
CBS News analyzed ICE data and found that the agency's arrests topped 100,000 earlier last month, and a record 59,000 people were being held in ICE detention as of June 23. An an early June poll conducted by CBS News shows that a majority of Americans approve of Trump's deportation program.
CBS News New York reached out to ICE officials in response to the city leaders' accusations on Tuesday, as well as for a status update on Velazquez, himself. The agency said it needs more time to provide details.
"We will continue the fight until this stops, until we regain who we are as a country and who we are as people and until this administration follows the law," Goldman said.
